Who We Are

We are a grassroots organization of concerned individuals who have joined forces to try to make Jewish education affordable for every family that wishes to send its children to a Jewish day school in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

Mordechai Ben-Dat was the editor of The Canadian Jewish News for 18 and a half years.

Sara Dobner is a Senior Policy Advisor with the Ontario Government. As an Israeli-Canadian, she is the chair of the Israeli Identity Program, Schwartz/Reisman Centre. She has volunteered at the UJA Federation and Limmud 2015, and she is a CJN advisory board member. Previously, she was a board member of TanenbaumCHAT and Kachol Lavan Centre. Sara is a member of Congregation Darchei Noam. Married to Michael, she is the mother of two CHAT graduates.

Israel Mida has been a partner and consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) since 1985, including terms as Chair of the PwC Canadian Board of Directors and a member of the PwC International Board of Directors. Israel is a member of the boards of Canadian Society for Yad Vashem, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre for Holocaust Studies, Canadian Jewish Public Affairs Committee (CJPAC), and Beth David B’nai Israel Beth Am synagogue , and he is a member of the professional advisory committees of Jewish Foundation of Greater Toronto (including two terms as Chair) and Baycrest Hospital. Israel is a past honouree of ORT Toronto and he is inscribed in the Book of Life of the Jewish Foundation of Greater Toronto.

Zac Kaye has worked in the Jewish community for over 45 years, mostly with Hillel around the world. He is currently the Interim Executive Director at Cornell Hillel. Zac retired as the founding director of Hillel of Greater Toronto in 2013, and then he became the Interim Executive Director of Hillel in Minneapolis. Zac has a Masters in Jewish education from Brandeis University’s Hornstein program, and he studied education at Manchester University, England. Married to Suzanne, they have 4 children and 8 grandchildren.

Jennifer Paton Smith is a technical writer. Although born in Toronto, she lived in Israel for 12 years, where she met her husband, Sander, and where their son was born. She is a member of First Narayever Congregation. She was a board member of Kehillat Tiferet Shalom (Ramat Aviv) and a founding member of Kehillat Veahavta (Zichron Ya’acov). Jennifer is a proud day-school graduate and the mother of a day school graduate.

Dr. Howard Price is a gastroenterologist married to Leah, with two wonderful children and son-in-law and two amazing grandchildren. Previously he has volunteered at UJA Federation, JNF, Hillel, Shaarei Shomayim Synagogue, DARA, and Ve’ahavta. Currently he volunteers at UJA Federation, JNF, CIJA, Beth Tikvah Synagogue, and Herzog Hospital.

Jeffrey Stutz is a specialist in public policy. He has worked on relations with Indigenous peoples in Ontario and Arab citizens of Israel. He is a member of Congregation Beth Haminyan. Married to Shirley, he is the father of three day school graduates.